A question to all Contemporary Gospel Bassists...

Hola,
Question. Do you fellow Contempary Gospel Bassist tune Down your basses (5-6 strings) to get even lower notes?? I'm talkin' bout' Fred Hammond-Andre Gouche style Gospel! Is this something Gospel bassist have started doing, or is this been goin' on for awhile? C'mon y'all, preach it to the choir!

Some players may detune their 5 or 6 string bass in order to gain a lowered pitched B flat note, which can be useful for the common keys of Gospel music. Whether or not this is often done by Gospel music bassist is a good question.

My pastor and sound guys don't like fivers because the lower notes resonate too much in our building, and don't contribute to a 'tight' sound which they prefer. Therefore, a Cirrus four is what I play. The Dingwall I had was awesome, and arguably one of the 'tightest' sounding fivers one could acquire (I tuned it to low A once and it was BAAAD!!) but my opportunities for low notes was limited to the occasional low D. I miss the flexibility of it a lot.

I've heard that some cat's have been tuning their Fivers and Six stringers down to "A". The Bflat tuning also sounds pretty hip!

Bobbo 77"

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I have detuned down to A, and its kool if you use the low b flat often, which in Gospel we do, but I am so used to the regular tuning that when I detune, I have spent more time trying to remember where the note are now in the new tuning, shifting notes up a whole step just gives me more of a headach then its worth to me, but for many, its no issue. so I tend to stay with the standard tuning.

I do a variety of styles, CCM, Alt. Rock Worship...but I grew up worshiping to and playing Black Gospel...and I recently made the switch to A-D-G-C-F tuning on my fretted five, so I can hit those couple extra notes...I use that tuning for everything, and while it takes getting used to, I like it!

Not having any problems with tightness, I have a decent compressor and a Sonic Maximizer in my rig, so I guess that helps...I don't think I'm going to go there with my fretless five though, or my four strings...

...it's just discipline to remember where I'm at on which ax, that's all!

I have always experienced problems detuning my basses and guitars. After years of playing, I have become too accustom to hearing a certain pitch at a certain fret until detuning just seems extremely weird when I play.

While detuning a whole step is not a major leap, do you guys really use the lower A or B flat often in Urban (Black, etc) Gospel music?

I have always experienced problems detuning my basses and guitars. After years of playing, I have become too accustom to hearing a certain pitch at a certain fret until detuning just seems extremely weird when I play.

While detuning a whole step is not a major leap, do you guys really use the lower A or B flat often in Urban (Black, etc) Gospel music?

Ted

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If you practice it, it will come naturally after a time...after about 4 months of going back and forth between my fretless five in standard BEADG and my detuned fretted ADGCF, I can say I experience little to no difficulty switching back and forth; my four string is also tuned standard EADG.

As far as using the Low A or Bb, yes, all the time, and I use it now when I play Rock, jazz, or blues gigs as well...the key is knowing WHEN it's okay to throw it in, and then not to abuse it...